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Tonium Pacemaker in the wild

Start-up company Tonium displays its Pacemaker mobile digital DJ device at CES.

Donald Bell Senior Editor / How To
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
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Donald Bell
Photo of Tonium Pacemaker at CES.
The Tonium Pacemaker aims to bring the professional DJ experience to a handheld device. Donald Bell/CNET Networks


The DJ is getting off easy these days. As more DJs turn in their turntables and record crates for laptops and external hard drives, the entry point for aspiring DJs has become both more attainable and more portable. Swedish start-up Tonium intends to shrink the digital DJ rig even further with a handheld product called Pacemaker.

At its heart, the Pacemaker is an MP3 player with 120GB of storage, USB 2.0 connectivity, and both headphone and line-out connections. What makes the Pacemaker unique is a set of touch pad controls that allow professional DJ techniques such as crossfading, filtering, EQ, and pitch control. A Web site allows users to upload their custom mixes and legally share them with other Pacemaker users.

Ola Sars, Tonium's marketing director, claims the Pacemaker will hit the U.S. in March and will be priced around $700.